What is SharePoint? Five Common Ways to use SharePoint sites

Hello,
Today I would like to talk about common ways to use SharePoint.

What is SharePoint? SharePoint history

SharePoint was launched by Microsoft in 2001 and it was called “SharePoint Portal Server 2001”. The first release of SharePoint was supposed to be a platform for document and content management. Over a decade has passed since that time and SharePoint has undergone multiple changes. The latest release of SharePoint has far more functionality. Nowadays it is usually called a business collaboration platform or application platform. Since SharePoint combines in itself various technologies, solutions and numerous features, it is extremely difficult to give an exact definition to what SharePoint is and what it is used for. In the internet you can find dozens of definitions and explanations.

Depending on the type of business, a SharePoint platform can serve different purposes. It is a centralized system that can be accessed through multiple devices connected to the internet, therefore the most significant function of SharePoint is to join all your employees from different departments, offices, buildings, cities or even countries, and provide them with a single place to complete their daily jobs and communicate with each other.
SharePoint brings benefits not only to large companies with multiple users, but also to small businesses of any type.

Common ways to use SharePoint sites

We can distinguish the following most common ways to use SharePoint:

Document and content management system – from the very beginning until the present day, SharePoint platforms are continuously used by many companies as a file share system with advanced settings. A centralized place where documents and files can be securely stored and easily accessed by end users, a role based security system and other powerful content management features draws the most attention from customers.

Company intranet SharePoint – most successful company intranet portals are built on a SharePoint platform. SharePoint provides tools for social networking, creating blog sites and company wikis. It provides an environment convenient for receiving the latest company news, announcements, scheduling and managing personal tasks, contacts and verifying the statuses of the latest projects.

Public facing website – SharePoint can also be used as a platform for a company’s website. It allows the creation of multiple publicly available pages with company information, text, images and graphics. SharePoint supports advanced HTML editing and all modern web technologies. This results in the ability to run a 100% custom branded site. SharePoint publishing features enable administrators to control the content, design and update pages, as well as manage permissions for the site.

Team collaboration – SharePoint is a perfect tool for your teams to coordinate on projects, connect to sites from different devices and receive notifications about updates. SharePoint allows team members to stay connected to the process, check project statuses, schedules, communicate with each other and access all information related to the project.

Business Analytics – SharePoint Business Intelligence features provide the ability to get critical information from the insights and, subsequently, to enhance productivity, improve decision-making and increase profits for the company. SharePoint allows the creation rich dashboards, graphs and charts, display trends, setup key performance indicators and a lot more to analyze company data.

And last but not the least, SharePoint can be customized for a company`s specific use. It can be adapted to perform functions that meet the needs of your business and are critical for your company’s success.

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